The Prison Healer

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of abuse and self-harm.

Coded notes symbolize Kiva’s connection with family and the outside world, connoting freedom and resistance to the oppressive environment of the prison. With her siblings, Kiva has created a coded alphabet so that they can exchange communications in secret, even through the dire barriers of the prison walls. As Kiva receives periodic notes hidden in prisoner’s clothing, these words from the outside offer her a connection with her family and help her to sustain the hope that she will one day be reunited with them. For Kiva, “[h]er family’s coded notes had given her the strength to stay alive” (336). Holding onto hope is challenging in Zalindov, and many prisoners die when they lose it. Kiva has survived much longer than most because she hopes to one day escape Zalindov.

In some ways, the notes offer Kiva false hope; although she receives repeated assurances over the years that her family is coming for her, no one arrives. It is not until Tilda Corentine is brought to Zalindov that the rebels finally attempt to break into Zalindov. Kiva is aware of the unfairness; her imprisonment was not enough to warrant action for 10 years, but Tilda’s incarceration is enough to incite action within weeks. In this way, the discrepancy between reality and the messages in the notes renders Kiva’s dubious connection to the outside world a heavy emotional burden. This effect is intensified when Kiva’s family tasks her with keeping Tilda alive despite the intense difficulty of such a goal, given her powerless position. Regardless of whether the notes offer hope or a burden, they do represent resistance to absolute power in Zalindov, for although Kiva is not allowed to communicate with the outside world, she does so with regularity.